Those who believed strongly that something would come of the
Irish Convention, and were congratulating themselves on the atmosphere of accommodation which was said to have been produced in Ireland, have received a shock during the week owing to the unfortunate death during a hunger-strike of the Sinn Fein prisoner, Thomas Asks. The memory of Thomas Ashe is naturally being honoured among every group of Sinn Feinera in Ireland. He is being represented as one more victim of British perfidy and bru- tality, and all observers agree that the Sinn Fein movement as a result has received a considerable momentum. The management of the whole affair by the Government seems to us to have been very unfortunate. It was a mistake, in our opinion, to release last Christmas the rebels convicted of serious crimes, but surely when that act of indulgence had been performed the Government could have afforded to disregard merely malicious statements that in governing Ireland according to ordinary rules of governance they were being guilty of a want of generosity. They yielded, however, to intimidation.
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